Solar Technologies, Inc - seminar

Had a chance to attend 2-hour seminar on August 1 offered by Solar Technologies, Inc., a solar installer on Soquel across from the Buttery. Focus was on financing and benefits of adding solar to your home under the California Solar Initiative, which is a state project to create a solar market, i.e. enough buyers and sellers so that solar will be competitive without use of current tax subsidies.

The seminar worked through a spreadsheet to see how those subsidies, together with financing, for typical small and typical large home solar installation. I found this quite helpful.

The idea behind the state subsidies is to reduce the subsidies as solar use increases, i.e. an incentive for homeowners to act sooner rather than later. A home solar unit typical creates 5 kilowatts of power, enough to cover most electric use during sunny hours. Current solar in state adds up to about 160 Megawatts (MW) now and will the state subsidy will vanish when the state total reaches 250 MW. At present solar can be installed for about $1,000 down and annula cost of loan payments, expenses and any electric bills etc. will be below your current annual electric bill.

Remark: Solar is gaining more quickly in China and Asia for a couple of reasons. One is lower expectations. Americans expect a temperature set at say, 72 F, will stay there and not move around. People in developing countries are more tolerant and happy to have low-cost electricity.